Since Nagy undoubtedly inked a non-exotic one-year deal for the minimum salary, the likely explanation is that the league saw through the whole “coaching intern” thing, which gave Nagy full access to meetings and would have encouraged other teams to hire a “coaching intern” at every position, in order to have them ready in the event that an injury creates a roster spot.

Then again, if the Eagles promptly re-sign Nagy, the obvious implication will be that there was a language issue with the contract, a condition that to our recollection is unprecedented for a street free agent.

UPDATE: The Eagles have disclosed on their official web site that they won’t be re-signing Nagy. And that tells us that the league office told the Eagles that they wouldn’t be permitted to use coaching internships to stash potential players.

SECOND UPDATE: A league source says that the disapproval related to Nagy’s contract with the AFL. But we don’t quite understand why a deal with a now-defunct league would affect Nagy’s ability to play in the NFL.

30 responses to “League disapproves Matt Nagy contract”

good for the league. they handled this well. this is all i was talking about in the previous post. now go ahead, eagles phaithphul, tell me what a whiny girlie crybaby cowboys fan i am. im sure that will make you all feel better about yourselves.

Did anyone happen to notice that the Raiders cut QB Danny Southwick, but he is also being called an intern by people like Jerry McDonald of the Contra Costa Times. He’s also throwing the football to people like Javon Walker.
I saw him myself on Sat the 8th at the Raider Nation Celebration. He was on the sidelines getting him arm warm.
Are you sure that this doesn’t happen all over the league?

i’m sure this will make the haters happy
and yea ninjaneer you’re g@y, not for being a cowboys fan (even tough that doesnt help) but b/c you had such a huge issue w/ this, this guy had no chance to make the team, they just needed a body for Thursdays game, Kolb will be back soon enough

AmhaTek…im g@y for being concerned that a team is side stepping the 80 man rule…really? i thought being g@y meant that i was either happy or had a thing for men…wait…you are a philthy fan..ok nevermind…that explains everything…

I live In Philadelphia, and shame on any Eagles Fan who is to blind to understand why this is a problem. By the end of training camp, when they are down to 53 players, there are some VERY tuff decisions. You think this coaching intern thing would have zero influence on the league? Talk about dumb.
And McNabb is due for a injury, so Nagy probably would have been their starter by week 10.

Shame on everyone who thinks this was the Eagles being crafty and purposely trying to circumvent the rules when we’re talking about MATT NAGY.
Who? Exactly. He’s not an impact player. He’d never make it onto the active roster in any meaningful capacity. They needed a camp arm and picked the closest person to them, since he only needed to fill in for one preseason game.
It could be fishy, yeah, and it could be a big deal – if Derrick Brooks or someone else was made an “intern” – so in theory, yes, it could be a way to circumvent the rules.
In actuality? Matt Nagy.
Again, if this was a Lions post, there wouldn’t be all of this “concern trolling”.

“waht will make us feel better is remembering that 44-6 absolute crushing we laid on Dallas with a playoff spot on the line…here is to anotehr year of no playoffs wins for the cowgirls”
You should have remembered to stay in school.

See, the thing is that at the rate that Eagirls players are coming up lame, Nagy could come into play no matter how remote the possibility seems now. They got caught trying to stash a guy, which is an old trick that Reid learned from Ron Wolf, no harm so no foul and I’m cool with that.

If the specific AFL team he played for isn’t defunct (some teams are going to fold themselves in to AFL2), then he may still be under a valid and binding contract that doesn’t allow him to play in the NFL. It’s possible.
As for whether the Eagles were cheating, that’s a little absurd. What if a couple WRs went down for the next couple weeks and they signed Pinkston? Would there be this uproar? Folks would be laughing at them for having such a scrub on their roster.
Fact: he was poised to be a camp body for a week or so with the opportunity to show something in a preseason game. The advantage was all to Nagy, not to the Eagles. There are plenty of camp bodies lined up all over the country waiting for a shot.
Hey Vox! 44-6!

I think most of you who don’t have a problem with this are missing the point: the point was not that the NFL was all worried that Nagy is going to be the next Bart Starr reincarnated and that Philly is getting some massive advantage here.
The concern is that it sets a *precedent*. If you allow teams to take a “coaching intern” and halfway through camp turn those interns into active players, then potentially every team could do this with multiple players. You could have QB coaching interns, RB coaching interns, OL and DL coaching interns… heck you could probably stockpile an additional dozen or more warm bodies. Consider it extra injury protection. I think that’s what their worried about.
The only other way I could see the NFL allowing this is if “coaching interns” counted against the # of players allowed. So if teams are allowed 80 players in camp, then if you have 2 coaching interns (i.e. coaches who retain their eligibility as players) then you can only have 78 players in camp.
I think the message the NFL is sending is pretty simple: You’re either a coach or a player. Make up your mind. There’s no such thing as “I’m a coach unless injuries make my team really thin at this position, then suddenly I’ll decide to be a player again.”

Also on NFL.com –
“The Eagles had their contract with QB Matt Nagy rejected today, but according to a league source, it was unrelated to his previous/now current again role with the team.”
“Nagy’s deal was negated because he already was under contract to an Arena Football League team. And even with the AFL, by various accounts folding/folded, it was a violation of league procedures. ”
But hey, never let the facts get in the way of a good story…

Ok, I’ve never posted on here before but I had to join just to comment on this subject.
I am an Eagles fan born and raised in Philly and now leaving amongst the Plowgirls fans……so of course I’ll get blamed for being biased. BUT!!!!
What rule says that any team can’t do just what the Eagles attempted to do. It seems to me that a huge loophole was left by the powers that be and the Eagles found it. I do understand the concern about the ability to abuse this loophole but hey, Lawyers make a living out of exploiting loopholes everyday. How can the NFL yes turn around and say “Hey wait!! No is really no rule against what you’re doing but you’re not allowed to do that.
And some cheesy excuse about some rule or arrangment from a now defunct league doesn’t exactly give credibility to anyone in the power that is saying that this is against the rules.
To paraphrase a great quote “SHOW ME THE RULEBOOK”

Cheagles? It’s not even clever. But then again, guido Giants fans think wife-beaters, fake tans, tribal tattoos and slicked back hair is a good look, so intelligence isn’t necessarily something they’re equipped with naturally.